Advice before insurers put value on a total write off

Weave

Can anyone post me a link to the Ombudsman info on insurers having to pay the invoice value for recent purchases please?

Would be useful to have the full facts if I have to take this back to Admiral.

Thanks.

Quentin

If your insurer refuses to accept your invoice then a complaint to them followed by escalation to the FOS if you are unhappy with the reply will sort it.

But you must not negotiate with the claim handler.

Get back to your insurer to deal with the claim

Weave

Getting back to my insurer, instead of Auxillis claim management, is going to be expensive as we have had the Auxillis hire car for 15 days now. I am kind of stuck with them as they require you to sign an agreement at the start and I am sure that will say we have to pay them the hire car costs if we do not see this through to the end. I doubt they will let me walk away and just claim the hire costs from the at fault third party.

If I had known about the ombudsman protection for the invoice price with your own insurer and the bad press about Auxullis I would have done things differently. Unfortunately when you start the claim process you assume the insurer is looking after you as there was no doubt who was at fault. They offered the 'no fault' referral with the carrot of a like for like hire car and you assume its all good. When the accident has just happen you are not thinking about researching all the options and making a considered decision, you just think 'ring the insurer, that's what you pay them for'.

Lesson learned.... saying that I hope we never have to make a claim again so it will be a largely pointless lesson with any luck!

Fingers crossed I may be able to get the valuer to see my point of view. I seriously can not find the same spec car they are writing off available for less than we paid 3 weeks ago.

Weave

Just out of interest... anyone actually know how much Auxillis pay Admiral for the referrals?

Anyone out there with inside knowledge?

Quentin

Ok. You do look stuck with auxillis. So ignore the advice given regarding all you needed was your 3 week old invoice.

But still complain about being advised you should consider going to a claim handler when you wanted to claim initially .

Your thread title and OP are misleading, hence you getting your original query answered when you are not actually dealing with an insurer at all!

Weave

Thanks Quentin. Apologies if the OP was not clear. I did not realise the distinction between my 'insurer' and a claim management company would be relevant to how the car was valued. I do now!

If I don't get the answer I want from the claim handlers appointed valuer I will take it back to Admiral. I will argue they disadvantaged me by not explaining the risk of using a claims handler if the car is declared a total loss so soon after it was purchased. IMO they should at least email me info about the claim handler option which includes the risk of not being paid the invoice price if I do not stick with Admiral. Admiral did know the car was recently purchased as it obviously required a change to our insurance policy on the day we purchased it.

Quentin

The contract you are in with auxillis may say you are responsible for the hire charges if you terminate, plus reimburse them all their other costs.

15 + days credit car hire alone will be a lot!!

So find out if it's going to be cost effective to cancel before you take this back to your insurer

Weave

I'll keep the claim with Auxillis but will contact Admiral if Auxillis don't play ball. I will be really annoyed if they don't as this is a no fault claim where the other party were on the wrong side of the road. There was nothing my wife could do to prevent this happening.

Why would they not put our valuation through at the invoice price and see what the other parties insurer says about it?

I'll be gutted if we are short changed by £2500. We followed the rules!!! Paid for insurance, declared the correct car value, were not at fault and could end up not being able to replace the car with the same type even though we only had it for a week. That works out at a depreciation of £357.14 per day!!! I could have hired a Ferrari!

Quentin

Your are missing the point.

The advice that you will be reimbursed the invoice price was given as I thought you were claiming off your own policy.

Now you have corrected that then you need to realise you are not "entitled" to the invoice price but the market value immediately prior to the incident as you have been advised.

So the advice you were given in #2 applies.

Auxillis are not paying you, the third party insurer will be doing so. Auxillis are not involved in having to play ball! They only have to ensure the valuation meets the market value and how much you paid is irrelevant

Auxillis are acting on your behalf.

You say you followed rules, but decided against making a claim on your policy. Thus the insurer is out of the picture and the rules don't count

Unless of course you successfully complain that you have been misled,, and they compensate you for any costs you incur

dacouch

Have you seen the daily charge Auxilis are charging the other Insurer yet?

It is on your hire agreement, it will amaze you

22/17
motor - valuation - evidence of value - whether purchase price an accurate indicator of value
Mr Q's car was stolen just over a month after he had bought it. Since he had paid £18,495 for the car, he was extremely upset when the firm valued it at just £15,564.

He pointed out that his policy contained a promise that the firm would replace new cars if they were stolen or became a "total loss" within the first 12 months. However, the firm said the car had not been "new". It said the car had been registered in the dealer's name before Mr Q bought it, and that this affected the car's value.

Eventually, the firm agreed to increase its offer to £16,524. Mr Q refused to accept this, arguing that the car had only five miles on the clock when he bought it. The firm would not change its stance, so Mr Q brought his complaint to us.

complaint upheld
The firm had no evidence to support its claim that the registering of the car in the dealer's name, only five weeks before Mr Q bought it, would have affected its value. We required the firm to increase its offer to the full amount Mr Q paid for the car, and to add interest from the date of the theft.

This is a fairly old piece of advise...

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/ombudsman-news/22/issue-22-motorinsurance.htm

Customers who dispute the firm's assessment of a car's market value often draw our attention to "forecourt prices" advertised in local papers, and - increasingly - to prices quoted on internet sites. Generally we place little weight on such evidence. Advertised prices for cars are widely understood to be a starting point for negotiation, rather than a fixed price. And the information provided is often insufficient to ensure a like-for-like comparison of age, condition and mileage. But we do sometimes take local factors into account when deciding a relevant replacement cost. If, for example, the car has been bought recently from a reputable source, then this may be a sensible starting point for determining its market value.

Superceded by this

https://web.archive.org/web/20140327134518/http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

"9. vehicles recently purchased second-hand
If the consumer only recently bought their car second-hand, we generally assume that they paid the market value price !!!8211; although we will consider any evidence the insurer can provide that this was not the case.

Which basically confirms in a more technical way that if you recently purchased a vehicle, the starting price to value your car is at the price you paid the dealer. It is then upto your Insurers to prove that the price you paid at the time was over priced.

(Courtesy of https://web.archive.org cached page from 27th March 2014)

Then in their infinite wisdom they decided to simply the web page and make it more consumer friendly (Oh dear)...

http://www.financial-ombudsman.org.uk/publications/technical_notes/motor-valuation.html

The more indepth technical notes still apply, you can confirm this by calling the Ombudsman who (Assuming the person you speak to has a good knowledge) will confirm that is how the Ombudsman still value recently purchased cars

The front line Admiral staff are probably not aware this is the case so you may experience some them not knowing about this